As advances in technology continue to upset old paradigms, library leaders need a firm grip on basics in order to shape current and future service. Therefore, our next library director should be...

Someone who understands the “is” of the library — the fundamentals of librarianship — who has a deep understanding of the librariness of what a library IS, its essence, irrespective of the formats collected.

Someone who understands the “is” of the public library — the fundamentals of public librarianship — with a deep understanding of the essence of the public’s library, who can elucidate the distinction between “library” and “public library.”

Someone who understands the “why” of the public’s library — the purpose, the need, the usefulness — who has thought through a scenario in which there is no public library, and who has come to the conclusion that the world is a better place because public libraries exist.

Someone who understands that public libraries are a quintessentially American thing, vital and integral to civil society. Someone who knows that Benjamin Franklin, the man who said that the founders gave us, “A republic, if you can keep it,” was the same man who established the first lending library, an informed citizenry needed for self-government. Someone with a deep and abiding love for the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States of America, a palpable affinity for the 1st and 4th amendments of the Bill of Rights, and a deep and abiding respect for rule of law and due process.

Someone who understands the concept of what library jargon calls “a core collection,” who has a public library core collection at the tip of the tongue, (“These titles, because,” “This format, because,”) and who can fit those specific titles, in some way, into at least five 14 gallon Rubbermaid totes.

Someone who has read “A Canticle for Leibowitz,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “1984,” “A Brave New World,” and “That Hideous Strength,” and who can expound upon the implications regarding the public library and its core collection in relation to those works.

Someone with a deep and abiding love for the alternative press.

Someone who understands the significant vulnerabilities of the digital format and who has thought through the question of why a core collection is needed in the most permanent, unchangeable, readily accessible format. Someone who understands that revising previously published cultural artifacts — masterpieces that have stood the test of time — is not only evil but readily possible in digital form, who knows that it has already been perpetrated, can cite specific examples of the perpetrations, and who is ready to guard against it ever happening again.

Page 2 of 2 - Someone who understands the realities of government surveillance and the way in which all things electronic facilitates the ease of surveillance, and who knows what the Electronic Frontier Foundation does.

Someone with an affinity for people, an affinity for communities, and a specific affinity for this community.

Someone who insists on organic and honest public input regarding the future of the public’s library, with an intellectual distrust of consultants and facilitation methodologies, a visceral distrust of technocracy, and enough clarity of purpose to be wary of service fads.

Someone who understands and accepts Rockford’s obstinate nature and loves it, not only despite its flaws, but perhaps because of them, and who is willing to work with us in a real and meaningful way to shape the public good — that is this thing called “library.”

First, find the person who rightly knows why the public library is and ought to be, then we can address the “what’s next” and “how.”

Andrew Strong is former Head of Youth Services at Rockford Public Library with a Master’s in English Literature and a Master’s in Library